Post-Covid Ideology and Dimensions in Language Teaching

Abstract

The chapter entitled Post-Covid Ideology and Dimensions in Language Teaching aims to explore the possible educational intervention in post-covid classrooms. It focuses on the role of teachers, stakeholders, curriculum, and technologies in the field of language teaching in the new-normal classroom situation after the Covid-19 pandemic. The chapter reviews the cultural and linguistic ideology of community developed as a possible way out in the new learning situation in the context of Nepal. Additionally, it discusses the paradigm shift in teaching-learning ideologies from the theoretical to practical perspectives for language teaching.

1. Introduction

Language teaching has been associated with the social function as the language teachers and learners interact with various social, cultural and cross-cultural ideologies. The social and cultural ideologies of any country can affect the language teaching and learning processes. These dimensions affecting language teaching can be the symbolic forms that circulate in the social environment. Van Dijk [1] states that ideology controls the thoughts of people and guides them by cognitive and social aspects based on norms, values, culture, identity and basic social features. As the sociocultural belief supports the formation of ideology, language teaching and learning in post-covid situations can be a part of gaining new ideology with the different cultural realities in the society. Therefore, this chapter deals with the ideologies of language teaching in post-covid situation including the role of the stakeholders, possible language instructional strategies and curriculum innovation in the classroom realities for language teaching.

2. Context

Teachers and students have not experienced such disruption in the instructional process with long duration of school closures in the history of academic field. According to the report of the United Nations, the global pandemic of Covid-19 has been affecting the world’s education system and continuous learning process. More than 1.60 billion students from pre-primary to higher education in more than 200 countries had stuck at home for months due to the lockdown in the first phase of Covid 19. With the onset of the global pandemic of Coronavirus (COVID-19), the educational sector has been facing several challenges. Students stuck at home, teaching-learning programs and examinations of primary, secondary, and tertiary levels have been postponed in many countries.

Many researchers in the field of sociolinguistics and anthropology discuss the role of language teaching in determining the cultural identity of the students. The study of Kennedy [2] indicates that language has a positive role to develop cultural identity establishing the social connection of people in the community. Likewise, Ennaji [3] explains that culture can shape the mental condition of people representing their behaviors and lifestyle based on local and national languages. Every language with a typical nature forms people’s cultural distinctiveness indicating various socio-cultural realities, traditions, lifestyles, cultural values and belief systems of a society developing the socio-cultural system of a nation.

In the present context of Nepal, many students at all levels have been suffering from anxiety due to the Covid pandemic and their parents seem worried about the continuation of their children’s study. Similarly, the responsible authorities and stakeholders in the academic field are exploring the possible alternatives for educational plans and interventions to address the learning situation in the pandemic. Similarly, we, as practitioners, experienced an interesting event of some students who are from remote areas have been involving in the different the community-based volunteer practices for creating learning opportunities. One of the students doing a master’s degree introduced life skills and conversation skills courses to the students of his community to make them responsible in learning and develop awareness to the misleading activities during pandemic.

Despite the physical, psychological, and emotional challenges, the teachers and have been engaging in creating opportunities during emergencies. These practices lead to improve this terrible situation beyond the classroom. We have traditional faith that learning is bound within the classroom, fixed curriculum, prescribed and referred textbooks, allocated schedule, particular teacher, and predefined learning goals. After reflecting about the COVID-19 pandemic, we conceptualized a framework of transforming learning strategies from face to face to online community or alternative modes which can be accessible to the students as per the geographical and economic access during the global pandemic of COVID-19. Similarly, we need to think about teaching-learning from the angle of learning to live and learning to be responsible. Cyberspace might be another key to unlock lockdown. Learners can explore the digital materials as per their learning requirements involving in the virtual classrooms with the help of digital tools and technological skills.

In a nutshell, the concerned authorities of education sectors need to develop the contextual learning modalities and skills which can lead to the shaping future of the children. The teaching-learning paradigm needs to be transformed to the learning-sharing paradigm because the episteme of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic suggests us transforming and adopting contextual learning opportunities. Therefore, the curriculum, content, context and learning space need to be considered innovatively in the post-COVID situation and the present context may unlock the paradigm of professional culture to identify homeschooling parameters associated with social and psychological maturity to the learners of COVID inflamed society of the nation.

Many researchers, linguists and SLA scholars have been developing a variety of student-centered methodologies and approaches for effective language teaching and learning process. The following section discusses the key concerns regarding the possible approaches that can be followed for post-covid language instruction.

3. Key issues

The section deals with the key issues which can be applied in post-pandemic teaching-learning situations. As mentioned by Arnove [4] the teaching-learning framework has been shifting to the need-based and technology-guided framework as the face-to-face learning paradigm is being shifted to the online and distance learning paradigm. Similarly, Contipelli and Picciau [5] focused on the facilitation and evaluation system of learned values and they need to be systemized based on the performance analysis of the learners as the learners are the social entity and they need to be audited by social members and stakeholders. As following [6] post method pedagogy is the baseline for the post-pandemic situation because the theory is based on socio-cultural pragmatism and focuses on the contextual principles of the locality. Williams et al. [7, 8, 9] repot that the online teaching process is the opportunity to redefine the education system during this pandemic. It can be used alternatively to address the learning vulnerabilities of many children and youth and to support students at risk during the crisis as it elaborates on the concept of the virtual environment, virtual teacher, virtual students, and a new framework of the curriculum associated with the national educational policy. Furthermore, the Nepal government, educational stakeholders and concerned authorities need to respond as soon as possible to ensure students’ continuous learning spaces with safety measures as suggested by [10]. This is high time to plan and design equal learning modalities for all students throughout the country certifying the appropriate methods of evaluation. All teachers are responsible for applying plenty of resources to introduce new learning modalities accessible to the students.

Classroom situation, role of learners and instructors, medium of instruction, facilitation and evaluation, transformative attitude and research behaviors aspects are the major key aspects of post-pandemic pedagogy while teaching English in the second language context.

Henceforth the Post pandemic pedagogy can be presented diagrammatically as follow:

Figure 1 represents the conceptual framework of post-covid teaching-learning situation where teacher, learner, community, curriculum interact with educational technology based on contextual strategies, time, available resources, and accessibility. This denotes that the pandemic creates the opportunity for several alternatives and this pandemic can play role in the paradigm shift in the attitudinal reformation of the concept of learning facilitation and evaluation as the diagram focuses on the involvement of all kinds of stakeholders in teaching-learning and evaluation procedure. Post-covid situation will adopt technology-oriented teaching, learning and research abilities and activities followed by a performance-based evaluation system in all levels of school and higher education institutions.

Figure 1.

A conceptual framework for post-covid teaching-learning management.

3.1 Classroom situation

The classroom situation is the crucial unit in the pedagogical reformation. It is believed that classroom is the space where learning situation is created. Kumaravadivelu [11] suggested that teachers’ and learner’s agreement in the production of learning issues is important as the principle of possibility determines the possible classroom activities where learners’ autonomy can be observed. Similarly, He and Harris [12] state that Covid- 19 created a situation for online and distance mode learning management system where learners learn self-management skills and that makes them responsible for learning. The classroom situation will be open and students will be involved in the network where they can collaborate and communicate . Teräs, Suoranta [13] on the other hand claimed that the learning situation might have transformed to the technological and responsibility-related aspects and the learners might have a greater degree of participatory roles as a result they can be transformative learners. Therefore, cloud-based classroom and online community-guided learning management systems can be imagined as per the contextual relevance. In this 21^st century, vocational and technical education is in the prime concern; as per the concern education is itself the highly technical concern, so we the faculties and stakeholders of the education field need to collaborate and coordinate to upgrade the value of education faculty. We need to develop a sound relationship with feeder and supporting schools as we can collaborate to share quality goods. We can develop several programs with those schools.

• Professional development support in exchange mode

• Field visit or exploration

• Sharing the best practices of feeder and support schools.

• Developing research initiatives in the schools—University could develop projects for schools. Teachers and students collaborate to complete the project.

• Internship (Long termed and short-termed)

• Teach for Improvement fellowship

On the other hand, Home is the first school for every child and parents are the best teachers. kitchen kitchen, bedroom, living room, study room, surroundings can be the classrooms for homeschooling for example – The kitchen might be the lab for Science and Health, Bedroom may be the lab for language and moral values, the living room might be the lab of practical works of all disciplines, surrounding might be the lab for social and environmental studies. In another context, parents might have a mindset of several questions such as, how to deal with languages, mathematical problems…? I don’t know science, English, Mathematics…? However, all parents are not found conscious of their responsibilities and duties. Parents need to teach about life skills, disciplines, moral values, personal duties and responsibilities to their children since lockdown is creating the opportunity. They can shape their children’s practical learning by involving them in multiple intelligence-based activities such as drawing, singing, dancing, writing daily diaries, developing logic, watching documentaries and news and communicating with family members and friends.

3.2 Role of the stakeholders

Stakeholders are defined as students, teachers, guardians, community members, policymakers who contribute to learning and transfer of learning. It is believed that the role of the stakeholders determines the principles of learning management. For example, [5, 14, 15] report that the learning situation is in the control of the learning situation and learning variables such as Contipelli and Picciau [5] focus on rebuilding the learning situation in which the learning agents feel safe to learn and that is accessible, affordable and relevant to the geographical, educational and economic aspects. With this reference and the country situation of Nepal, the stakeholders can contribute their role and responsibility as shown in Table 1.

Agents	Role and responsibility
Learners	Feel free to learn Engage in communication Develop collaborative environment Practice cooperation among peers, teachers and family members Explore the content from the cyberspace Develop digital skills Adjustment and adaptation to the new trends Improve performance in content, context, life skills, soft skills and technology
Teacher	Develop new interventions for classroom improvement; Facilitate the learners through face to face, distance, or online mode Develop digital consciousness Form social relationship Fulfill social responsibility Adapt to the new trends and develop consciousness to the new skills Follow the new trends of facilitation and evaluation framework Establish a relationship with learners, parents, community members and policymakers
Guardian	Monitor the activities of children Involve their children in household works and decision-making process Develop the sharing culture with family members Establish a relationship with children, teacher, school administration Fulfill the basic requirements and needs of children.
Policymakers	Share the learning modality and framework Inform about the new skills to the stakeholders Involve the members of all class to form a new policy Develop digital infrastructure Encourage to implementation of the new ideas as per the need of society and learners.

Table 1.

Role and responsibility of stakeholders.

3.3 Medium of instruction

Medium of instruction is another key issue in the post-pandemic situation. Language is known as the symbol and culture as the identity, in the pace of interacting the linguistic and cultural landscape, Giri [16] reported with the example of English and Nepali language that other language speakers are confused due to the linguistic hegemony of the elites and the ethnic identity might have the transformed to the group of linguistic dominance. Similarly, Phyak [17] illustrated through the examination system as the learners of one linguistic background are motivated to participate in the test such as IELTS, TOEFL and GRE for the migration of another cultural landscape as if they intend to access the eligibility for assimilation. However, Pherali and Garratt [18] stated that the cultural landscape got highly affected by socio-political and historical experiences as the socio-political changes deal with the reconstruction of the language surrounding the notion of marginalization and ethnicity.

Azimzadeh and Bemani [19] argue that language and culture are interrelated to communicate ideas and transformation of traditions as the people can develop and sustain cultural impression using language. Therefore, language shapes cultural ethics concerning communication and collaboration efforts. Moreover, language has the power to transform the heritage of the culture, for example, Deuda culture is shaped by the Dotyali language on the other hand the words Maichyaang and chyaanwa have the representation of the cultural accommodation and ownership in the preservation of the language and culture. For the context of second language teaching pedagogy, EMI has incorporated several issues based on the context of learning because the societal framework and cultural consciousness influence the practice of EMI strategies in the classroom.

Toh [20] argued that the EMI emerged with the view of policy level or its constraint to the bureaucratic purposes rather than academic purposes in the sense that it had challenges in the implementational levels due to the level of the learners, learning situation, influence of the first language of the learners and the teachers’ capacity to deal with the issues related to the second or foreign language. Similarly, Lee and Curry [21] stated the challenges in the level of the teachers and students as they explored the challenges such as English language proficiency, planning time for classes, building confidence and correcting mistakes and examining the proficiency of learners in the level of the teacher, on the other hand, students had observed the challenges as decreasing rate of enrollment, lack of interaction with peers and teachers, English proficiency level concerning to the classes in the native language. However, Dang and Vu [22] claimed that the competence framework of EMI determined the pedagogical and communicative purposes by which they occurred challenges concerning EMI can be mediated by the English language and English language teaching strategies in the second language situation.

Phyak and Sharma [23] explained that the EMI policy in Nepal influenced the neoliberal ideologies as a result it primarily focused on the socio-political and cultural aspects instead of the academic perspectives. Therefore, the issues and challenges associated with the EMI shape the cultural framework to determine the forms of language as per the defined context and need to consider the learners’ perception and attitude towards the use of language for different purposes.

3.4 Learning facilitation and evaluation

In terms of learning facilitation Lockee [24] suggested that online community or digital application can have important contributions and teachers need to manage with technological consciousness. For example [25, 26, 27] argue for the integration of content, pedagogical and technological knowledge. Similarly, Herring, Koehler [26] suggest that technological integration encourages the development of content-specific components of the classroom environment, which benefits classroom qualities. The pedagogical movement in teacher education, on the other hand, encompasses the key transformative views in creating changes in classroom and community attitudes and actions. In addition, Elas, Majid [28] states that technological integration in English language instruction is necessary to facilitate proper teaching in a digital learning environment and that the concept of technological, pedagogical, and content (TPACK) assists English teachers and teacher educators in associating technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge. Valtonen, Sointu [29] focuses on the necessity for all instructors to have a variety of pedagogical and ICT skills to help students build 21st-century capabilities. Teachers’ readiness to learn twenty-first-century skills and pre-service teachers’ TPACK skills are developed when the TPACK framework is used as one of the flexible models in teacher education. Lehiste [30] focuses that how well teachers integrate their technical and content knowledge for classroom instruction affects students’ learning. Furthermore, this study discovered that in-service teachers who received TPACK training improved their technology expertise and ICT integration in their classrooms. Rodríguez Moreno, Agreda Montoro [31] suggested the learning felicitation process will follow the current trends such as problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, virtual synchronous and virtual synchro’s mode of teaching and learning from which learners’ autonomy can be ensured. Gyawali [32] stated face-to-face teaching-learning modalities, distance-based learning modalities and mobile teaching. Hence the post pandemic instructional activities shall be as:

• Group interaction through virtual or physical mode

• Collaboration among the group and peers

• Network building and sharing learning

• Use of social media

• Use of easily accessible Learning management system

• Remote support from the teacher

• Community-based teaching

• Mobile teaching

• Use of digital tools and applications

• Project-based, Participatory based learning

• Learning through questioning

• Reflective activities

Despite the inclusion of formative assessment in the curricular design and policy papers, the evaluation system is still dependent on terminal and unit-based written examinations. Baral, Luitel [33] assert that, while traditional teaching and evaluation procedures are preferred by teachers, students, and the educational system, alternative modes of evaluation are required, emphasizing the need for a paradigm shift in the evaluation system that can assess students’ behavior, creativity, critical thinking, soft-skills, and life-skills to make learners self-sufficient in their practical lives. Students’ low creativity, lack of critical thinking and collaboration, rote learning, dropouts, and challenges in learning achievement are all major pitfalls. The post-pandemic situation will develop learner autonomy, collaborative learning situation, learners participation, interaction to the theme-based realities and critical and creative activities as suggested by [34]. Hence formative and performance-based evaluation systems including guardians’ evaluation need to develop because the learners spend most of the time with a guardian at home as a result evaluation from the home strategy will be emerged.

• Formative assessment

• Short and long assignment-based evaluation

• Project work-based evaluation

• Performance-based: presentation, participation, production

• Guardians’ evaluation

3.5 Cultural ideology as pedagogical reformation

People of various castes and communities have a strong desire to retain their languages and cultural identities as a source of cultural pride since language generate and preserves culture, and culture interacts within the language system. Gurung [35] claimed, for example, that the Nepalese Gurung community intended to create uniformity in their language script to preserve and promote their cultural and ethnic identity for future generations, since they were concerned that many Gurungs were living in detached countries without exercising their spoken and written languages, and that many Nepalese youths were studying Korean and Japanese in order to work overseas. Similarly, according to Katuwal [36], Khas is a primary source of the current Nepali language spoken by Chhetris, Bahuns, Thakuris, and Dalits. Many indigenous languages in Nepal’s Karnali province, including Surel, Sanskrit, Hayu, Pahari, Meche, Jirel, Dhimal, and Kumal, needed promotion and attention because they were on the verge of extinction due to a scarcity of speakers to preserve the cultural communications in these ancestral language varieties.

Some researchers contend that cultural identity encompasses more than only language preservation, claiming that many parts of culture can be replicated. For example, Chapagain [37] stated that the Raute tribe of Nepal showed their distinct cultural identity through their clothing, habits, and traditional belief system, and that they saw the world differently and cherished their nomadic nature.

Silwal [38], on the other hand, claimed that the Raute people and their offspring did not understand Nepali since they had established their nomadic lifestyle and cultural identity through the Raute linguistic system. As a result, the language system can influence how a community’s cultural identity is presented.

These findings show the connection between language and cultural identity, with language loss posing a threat to people’s cultural identities. As a result, people from specific cultures wish to promote their language system to maintain their ethnic dignity and cultural pride.

3.6 Acculturation model of language teaching and learning

Students’ cultural identity is associated with the language teaching and learning process because recognizing language elements supports the learners to adapt various cultural sign, symbols and actions with societal consciousness in the new cultural context. Li [39] emaphasised that cultural transformation can be developed through teaching and learning about diverse linguistic features of a language that empowers language learners against linguistic and cultural hegemony. Likewise, Freire [40] emphasised about the multicultural and multilinguistic instruction that can develop cultural awareness, socio-political consciousness, and social actions to foster the cultural identity of the individuals. Nevertheless, Pinto and Araújo e Sá [41] state that language and development of cultural identity do not promote to each other however they develop continuously in the society overcoming various perspectives. On the contrary, the study of Donitsa-Schmidt and Vadish [42] emphasized that language proficiency and cultural assimilation supported North American students to understand the Hebrew language in the Israeli socio-cultural context and to establish a new Israeli cultural identity while staying there. The above literature, therefore, describes that developing language competency through language learning is one of the major factors to trace the cultural identity of language learners. It helps to promote them to assimilate into a new cultural context.

3.7 Cross-cultural identity and language transmission

The communication using a particular mother tongue in a family and community supports for learning the fundamental values, cultural beliefs, historical traditions and distinct cultural identity. Therefore, Language transmission can be the foundation for cultural transmission developing cultural consciousness to the human generations. Gelman and Roberts [43] reported that language can be the dominant factor of cultural transmission in the society which can exchange cultural skills and mental system of the people. Similarly, Kinzler, Corriveau [44] explained that mother tongue can be one of the socio-cultural identity markers of human beings because more than 6000 human languages exist in the world were mostly learned by the people in their early childhood.

Some researchers have reported that language learning can be challenging when people migrate from one place to another place. For example, the study of Bhugra [45] reported that people can experience socio-economic problems and cultural alienation to adjust in the new environment when they shifted from one socio-cultural background to the next linguistic and socio-cultural background. Language learning can be challenging which can create problems to develop a distinct cultural identity. However, the study of Miller and Collette [46] stressed that individuals can develop their multicultural identity even they migrated in the multicultural community because they can learn the languages of the target culture and develop the required skills to function in the new socio-cultural context with the feeling of pride on their own culture at the same time.

4. Conclusion

The language as an interactional tool represents students’ linguistic and cultural ideology and backgrounds. Culture as a social system fosters language development in a society and largely frames the expressions of human narratives in their family and society.

In the post-pandemic situation, the teachers, parents, stakeholders and all the students need to focus on need-based language teaching and learning process respecting language they speak and cultural ideology they belong to. Pedagogical reformation leads students to com-municate in a language that means understanding and interpreting the in-depth socio-cultural values, lifestyle and directions related to a particular culture. Similarly, the paper indicates that people with a distinct language and cultural identity can celebrate their linguistic and cultural harmony as language represents the system of transmission of cultures to the next generations. As presented in the studies, languages upraise the cultural positioning of a community generating development opportunities in different fields such as socio-politics, education, media and economics.

Furthermore, language functions as a cognitive tool to express the linguistic terms relevant to the cultural background therefore shifting linguistic region may result from individuals’ adaptation to the new culture reframing linguistic diversity with cultural identity. The different features and levels of mother tongue interconnect thoughts, cultural ethics, and social happenings in the form of cultural identity in the community. Therefore, trans-languaging approaches, transformative ideology and digital immersion play a significant role to reframe post-pandemic ideology in the framework of the pedagogical shift in English language teaching. Similarly, language reflects the culture and culture practices language in the community therefore language learning and transmission for cultural representation as a whole characterize the role of language in shaping and maintaining a distinct cultural identity in this changing world. All human beings need to be responsible to promote linguistic and cultural identity for pedagogical perspective in the post-pandemic period.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the Professors, colleagues and family members who inspired and helped us to bring out this chapter in this form. I would like to acknowledge to the authors of books, book sections and journals whose works were cited in developing this chapter. Likewise, I am indebted to the editorial board and reviewer of this book project for continuous feedback and support for the publication.